This Is How Comcast Is Astroturfing the Net Neutrality Issue

By its own admission, Comcast is working with think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute. Fellows at the Institute are printing op-eds all throughout the media in support of killing Net neutrality--without disclosing the think tank's ties to Comcast.

In February, the Washington Post published a story detailing Comcast's immense lobbying power in Washington—and how that might lead to potential astroturfing (or masked, artificial grassroots support spurred on by lobbies or corporations) on the web for issues like its merger with Time Warner Cable.

"They've spread a lot of money around town to a lot of places, just for moments like this," said Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the Time Warner Cable merger. At a minimum, Comcast could encourage the deal's critics to sit out the debate, he said. "At best, they've got a whole network of people advocating for them."

And now, op-eds in favor of the unpopular proposal from Comcast-linked think tanks are appearing in major publications—from the Wall Street Journal to U.S News and World Report—without disclosing the institution's ties to Comcast.

When reached by phone, Bennett said that he had been writing about Net neutrality for a decade before joining the American Enterprise Institute.

AEI's only had a tech policy center for maybe a year," he said. "I think you're trying to connect dots that aren't there.

"The Institute has no official stance on the Net neutrality issue," he added.

But the Institute's most read stories on Net neutrality clearly favor the FCC's new plan for a regulated Internet. One, titled "Time to give up the Net neutrality quest" was reprinted in the Wall Street Journal's Opinion section.

Another, titled "Net neutrality is a bad idea that's run its course," was reprinted on RealClearMarkets.com. Neither Bennett nor the publication discloses his employer's ties to Comcast in either piece, but both identify the American Enterprise Institute next to his byline.

Holly Yeager's story in the Post details Comcast's strategy of encouraging think tanks to write white papers—or published reports used to shape policy—in defense of the company's more controversial stances and actions.

"Shoe leather lobbying gets you only so far," Michael Meehan, president of VennSquared Communications, told the Post. "Then it's think tanks that write white papers, and white papers are taken by shoe-leather lobbyists into the congressional offices."

One of Bennett's stories, "Net Neutrality advocates need to get their facts straight," says in its opening sentence that "The FCC's Net neutrality rules are based on the false premise that American broadband services are sub-standard compared to those in other countries."